To your advantage you will be getting in there and looking around. Then you can decide (about your hunt). Elk City area - there is `on top' type terrain that is not so steep, and spread out. But then as you go toward the rivers' breaks, things get steep, and steeper, and darker, and tight, and thick. If I were to go that direction to hunt elk, and be serious about elk, I would have to face that they are probably going to be in the thickest, darkest, steepest, most inaccessible of all the terrain. But putting a tag on an animal isn't necessarily everything. Get in there and take a look - I think you'll have a great hunt if you hunt the area you want to hunt - but realize that the elk that live to reproduce are the ones that have managed to escape both wolves and hunters.

... Being in those steep and unpopulated areas is paradise for me. I'm very excited to take my trip.
Thanks again!

Now you're talkin'. Hopefully someone with recent experience in that area will post in. Though I have not much hunted around there per se - I have seen a lot of elk around Elk City - but it was before the wolf thing. One hunch I have in elk recovery is that they take advantage of steep (very steep, and rocky) terrain ... to avoid or evade the wolves. And since the wolves are on them 365 days a year - that's where I would look.

BTW - to drive to Elk City you will drive up the South Fork of the Clearwater River - one of the prettiest places on the planet in my opinion - especially in the fall of the year.

Thanks S.H. - I'm planning on taking a decent digital camera on the trip and I'll post some of my scouting photos and hunt photos later in the year. If any one out there has more advice or tips please feel free to post. Thanks!!

Here are some pictures that I took Sept '07 in Unit 15. These pictures were taken about 10-15 miles west of Elk City. I have hunted whitetails in this area the last two years, but I have never elk hunted it. These year while whitetail hunting I did come across several elk rubs from this year.

you sound so much like i did--obsessing about your hunt,researching,asking questions, serious hunter said it best- absorb as much info as you can and hunt where you want-harvesting an animal is second to sharing the hunt with your dad --you'll be hooked! and saw no hint of bears,but i know there were times i got lost in the whole experience and couldnt have cared if one ran in front of me.

Let me start off by saying that I am a scaredy cat.
Of heights.
For someone that spent 3 years in 82nd Airborne jumping out of all manner of military aircraft, my friends find this ludicrous - but... it is what it is!
Climbing stand? Yep, still scared - put me up 15' and that is about it.
Ladder stands? I am better in these - but still cautious.
Chain on stands? Used to love them, now they terrify me.
I was once ridiculed for putting chain on stands waaaay too high - some of my friends...